SKULL!!

The teeth looked relatively clean.
Was he close enough to a road that he might have gone there after being hit?

If he/she'd been hit seriously enough to cause death, you'd expect skeletal damage.

Nowhere near a road, really (and no obvious signs of skeletal damage from having been hit). He was found near the middle of a small wood which is on private land and with no public right-of-way, on the outskirts of a small village (only about 50 houses in total) surrounded by moorland. The village is not on a thoroughfare to anywhere else, just a sort of dead end. Literally so, in the dog's case.

The next nearest village is a few miles away, so it's possible that he escaped from his own garden and ended up lost in our wood, but it's still strange that nobody was asking around if a dog had been found. I can't think of any poison which he may have found - people round here sometimes put down poisoned rat or mole pellets, but it's rare. It's agricultural land mainly, so maybe it was some kind of paraquat weedkiller used by a farmer. Or he could have eaten and animal which had previously been poisoned.

Other than that, there's pheasant shooting in that wood during November and December so he might have been peppered with shot accidentally, but I would have thought that he'd have made a commotion and the hunt/point/retrieve dogs on the shoot would have found him.

The wood is owned by the family of John Buchan who wrote the 39 Steps. Maybe they could turn this into a mystery novel!

Front teeth aren't supposed to be that far apart, are they? Does this mean it's either not full grown yet, or very old (worn off) or that it had some kind of calcium deficiency?

I think they look like typical German Shepherd teeth - as I said, I was looking one in the face last weekend. Next time I meet one I'll try to get photos.

They don't look worn off, Stan. It's perhaps not too clear in the photos, but looking at the skull itself, the teeth seem remarkably clean and unworn. It might have been a very young dog, but it was still big for a German Shepherd, given the size of the skeleton - so definitely fully grown, and not a puppy.

The front teeth between the huge canines are very short like that. My dog (the German pointer) has very similar teeth, although they are more closely spaced.

My only explanation for this is that the skull belongs to Goofy.

Oh, I guess I've been looking at the smaller types on that skull page. Next time I see a large canine, I'll have a closer l.. er... I'll ask its owner.

i would have guessed a very tooth-y sleestak... poor dog!

I know when cats are very ill they go off to a private place to die - do dogs do the same? Even a 2-year-old could die of natural causes, and if it's one with the run of the neighbourhood then that makes sense I think.

So, what was it? Did any experts report back?

Cause of death remains a mystery.

I was talking to the gamekeeper who looks after that area of land the other day and he said it was strange that he'd not noticed the skeleton there before, since he spends a lot of time in those woods. Odd.

CJ any chance you could email me the pic? The address here works. It's just that the only pic that isn't displaying on my pooter is, somewhat annoyingly, the one that yr thread is all about!

Okie dokie .... I'll send it to you now :)